The Christmas holidays are meant to be a time of rest. Yet for many of us, they arrive after weeks of busyness, heightened emotions, disrupted routines, and constant stimulation. By the time the official “break” begins, our nervous systems are already overloaded.
Resetting during the Christmas holidays doesn’t require elaborate plans or dramatic change. In fact, the most effective resets are often simple, sensory rituals that help your body and mind return to balance, gently, naturally, and without pressure.
At Scentered, we believe resetting isn’t about starting over. It’s about pausing, grounding, and reconnecting with yourself through small, meaningful moments. Aromatherapy plays a powerful role in this process, helping you anchor calm and presence into your days.
Here are three simple rituals to help you reset during the Christmas holidays, wherever and however you’re spending them.
Ritual 1: Begin the Day Slowly and Intentionally
The holiday season often disrupts sleep and routine. Late nights, rich food, travel, or social commitments can leave mornings feeling groggy and unstructured. A gentle morning ritual can restore clarity and emotional steadiness before the day unfolds.
Rather than reaching straight for your phone, begin by taking a deep breath and applying the Focus Aromatherapy Balm to your pulse points. Its blend of rosemary, mint, and clary sage helps bring alertness and mental clarity, not in a rushed way, but with steady, grounded energy.
As you inhale, allow yourself a quiet moment to check in. Ask how your body feels. Notice your breathing. Set a simple intention for the day ahead, calm, presence, or ease are often more helpful than productivity during the holidays.
According to Mind UK, creating small daily rituals can support emotional regulation and reduce feelings of overwhelm, particularly during times when routine feels disrupted. Even five minutes of intentional stillness in the morning can prevent stress from becoming the default response.
This ritual doesn’t need to be perfect or time consuming. Whether you’re at home, visiting family, or away for the holidays, a familiar scent helps your mind recognise safety and stability, wherever you are.
Ritual 2: Create a Midday Sensory Reset
Christmas days can be full, emotionally, socially, and mentally. Even joyful gatherings can become draining, especially if you’ve been constantly “on.” A midday reset gives your nervous system a chance to recover before tension builds.
This is where sensory grounding becomes essential. Stepping away for just a few minutes, applying a balm, or lighting a candle can completely shift how the rest of your day feels.
The Escape Aromatherapy Balm and Escape Candle are ideal for this purpose. Blended with oud, frankincense, and sandalwood, Escape is deeply grounding and centring. The scent evokes calm, space, and stillness, ideal when your thoughts feel busy or scattered.
Oud provides depth and warmth, frankincense encourages emotional clarity, and sandalwood helps regulate the nervous system. Together, they create a grounding sanctuary in scent form.
Take your reset somewhere quiet, near a window, outside for fresh air, or in a calm room. Apply the balm to your wrists or temples, close your eyes, and take three slow breaths. If you’re at home, lighting the candle can extend this ritual, creating a moment of pause within the day.
The NHS highlights how breath focused relaxation and grounding techniques can reduce stress and restore emotional balance. Pairing these practices with scent enhances their effectiveness by engaging multiple senses at once.
This ritual helps prevent emotional overload, allowing you to return to the day calmer, more present, and less reactive.
Ritual 3: Wind Down Each Evening With Comfort
Evenings are where the weight of the day often catches up with us. During the Christmas holidays, this can be intensified by social exhaustion, increased screen time, or disrupted sleep schedules.
An evening ritual signals to your body that it’s safe to rest. The key is consistency, repeating the same calming cues night after night, even when your routine changes.
The Sleep Well Aromatherapy Balm and Sleep Well Candle are designed to support deep relaxation through scent. This blend of lavender, palmarosa, and ylang ylang helps calm the nervous system, soften stress responses, and encourage emotional release before sleep.
Lavender quietens mental chatter, palmarosa supports emotional balance, and ylang ylang brings softness and reassurance, particularly helpful during emotionally full festive periods.
Apply the balm as part of a winding-down routine, perhaps after washing your face, journalling, or stretching. Light the candle 30-60 minutes before bed to create a gentle transition from activity to rest.
The NHS sleep guidance emphasises the importance of bedtime rituals in improving sleep quality, particularly during times of stress or routine disruption.
Even if your sleep isn’t perfect over the holidays, this consistent ritual helps your body associate evening time with calm, comfort, and restoration.
Why Simple Rituals Matter at Christmas
Resetting isn’t about eliminating stress entirely; it’s about giving your nervous system regular opportunities to recover. During the Christmas holidays, emotional stimulation often exceeds what we experience during the rest of the year.
Simple rituals work because they are repeatable, sensory, and grounding. Over time, your brain begins to associate certain scents with calm states, helping you shift your emotional response more quickly.
Essential oils such as lavender, frankincense, and sandalwood can support relaxation, emotional regulation, and mental clarity, making them particularly effective during stressful seasons.
Unlike more demanding self care practices, these rituals are easy to maintain even when routines change. You don’t need special equipment, space, or long periods of time, just a moment of intention.
Resetting Without Pressure
It’s important to remember that a reset doesn’t mean fixing or improving yourself. Especially during the holidays, self-care should feel supportive, not like another task.
Some days, your ritual may last ten minutes. Others, it may be just one deep breath. Both are enough.
By gently anchoring your day with scent, morning clarity, midday grounding, evening comfort, you create a rhythm that supports wellbeing without effort. These rituals don’t compete with holiday plans; they support you through them.
A Scentered Way to Reset
Scentered’s Aromatherapy Balms and Candles are designed to fit into real life, offering moments of calm wherever you are, whenever you need them.
Whether it’s the grounding depth of Escape, the clarity of Focus, or the comfort of Sleep Well, each blend supports emotional balance through scent led rituals that honour your pace.
This Christmas, resetting doesn’t have to wait until January. It begins with a pause, a breath, and a moment just for you.